How to Fix an Underexposed Photo in Photoshop

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Losing an image to bad exposure is one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a photographer. But whether you're working with a RAW file or an 8-bit JPEG, there's a good chance you can bring that image back to life in Photoshop.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to brighten shadow areas without blowing out your highlights, using a Curves adjustment layer and the Apply Image command. We'll also cover how to restore natural color to those shadows once they're brightened, so the final result looks realistic instead of washed out.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro to Rescuing an Underexposed Photo
01:32 Brightening Shadows With a Curves Adjustment
02:18 How the Apply Image Command Works
03:17 Applying Apply Image to the Layer Mask
04:10 Using Invert for Accurate Masking
05:17 Matching Saturation to the Brightness Boost
06:37 Before and After Comparison

THE STEPS
1. Add a Curves adjustment layer and brighten the midtones to bring life back into the dark areas of the photo
2. Notice that brightening the whole image this way blows out the highlights
3. Add a new blank layer, then go to Image, then Apply Image to see how the command captures everything visible on the canvas
4. Click the layer mask on the Curves adjustment layer, then go to Image, then Apply Image again to copy the image onto the mask
5. Click Invert in the Apply Image dialog so the brightening effect only shows up in the shadows
6. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and increase saturation to compensate for the added brightness
7. Hold Alt or Option and drag the layer mask from the Curves layer onto the Hue/Saturation layer so the saturation boost matches the same area
8. Compare the before and after to see the shadows recovered without losing highlight detail

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